THE SOUNDS OF jubilant celebration were momentarily muted when the manager of the defeated opposition appeared in the victorious dressing room.
A week removed from a defeat to Yeovil Town, Bradford City had gotten the better of a team coached by a Champions League, Premier League, La Liga and Serie A winner.
“Jose Mourinho said ‘well done, you’ve all got massive balls’ when he came in,” recalls Billy Clarke. “He went around and shook hands with every one of us, saying there were no excuses from them and that we deserved to win.”
Ahead of the FA Cup fourth-round tie at Stamford Bridge in January 2015, Mourinho told a press conference that it would be “a disgrace” if his Chelsea team were beaten by a side who sat 49 rungs below them on the English football ladder.
The 4-2 loss to the visitors from League One would transpire to be Chelsea’s only defeat in the 27 home games they played in a season that culminated with Mourinho’s side being crowned Premier League champions.
On the train back to Bradford that evening, Billy Clarke’s gearbag carried a couple of valuable mementoes from one of the greatest days in his career – his own shirt, but also the one worn by Chelsea’s World Cup-winning midfielder Cesc Fabregas.
Now, in an effort to raise funds for two worthy causes during the Covid-19 pandemic, Clarke has decided to put the shirts up for grabs. A ticket for the raffle, which costs [GBP] £15, will leave entrants in with a chance of winning both shirts.
The beneficiaries will be Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Trussell Trust, which has a foodbank branch in the West Yorkshire city.
Although he now plays his football with Grimsby Town, Clarke continues to live just outside Bradford with his wife Kate, and their three sons Charlie, Freddie and Ezra.
After beginning his professional career with Ipswich Town, the former Republic of Ireland U21 international joined Blackpool and was a member of the side that achieved promotion to the Premier League back in 2010.
“I’ve only got a couple of other shirts framed – the ones from my Ipswich debut and the play-off final with Blackpool. I was planning on eventually doing the same with these,” he told The42.
“But I just thought that if this is something that could raise a few quid for people who need it more than I do, then it makes sense for me to do that.
“I’ll always have the memories of the game because it was me who experienced it. The jerseys are only a reminder – a proud reminder, of course – that I played in the game.
“If someone else can have them in their house and it gives them a similarly special memory of the game, and it raises money for good causes, then that would be fantastic.
“It’s well-documented that the NHS could be better funded, especially with what’s going on at the moment and how hard they’re working.
“I’ve been helped by the NHS in the past as well with injuries and stuff, but it’s mainly because they’re the front line of what we’re up against right now and they’re putting their own health at risk for the sake of others.
“With the food bank, everyone knows that Bradford is not an affluent area. They’re all down-to-earth people here, top people, and a lot of them have been furloughed or made redundant recently.
“Because of that, I’m sure there are a lot of families struggling to put food on the table. If I can help even one or two families, that would be great, but I’m going to try to help as many as I can.”
Clarke is aiming to bring in a minimum of £5,000, but he’s on course to raise a much larger sum before the winner of the raffle is announced on 1 May. At the time of writing, over £4,000 has been raised since the campaign was launched last Thursday.
Casting his mind back to that memorable win just over five years ago, Clarke feared his side were in for a drubbing when Ramires doubled Chelsea’s advantage in the 38th minute, after Gary Cahill had put them in front. With the likes of Oscar, Didier Drogba and Mo Salah also in the Chelsea team on the day, the signs were ominous for Bradford.
“We obviously went down there with no expectations of winning,” says Clarke, who was Bradford City’s leading goalscorer that season. “You want to give a good account of yourselves but that’s about it. It was a day out at Stamford Bridge.
“I was coming back from an injury, it was my first game in about six weeks so I started on the bench. I remember thinking when they scored their second goal that we were going to be beaten about 6-0. Thankfully we nicked a goal just before half-time.”
Jon Stead narrowed the deficit, but Bradford were still 2-1 down when Chelsea introduced Cesc Fabregas and Willian in the 70th minute in an attempt to close out the game. Five minutes later, however, the teams were level.
Mourinho responded to the equaliser from Filipe Morais by bringing on Eden Hazard, but the change didn’t have the desired effect. Andy Halliday gave Bradford the lead on 82 minutes, before Dubliner Mark Yeates sealed the upset for Phil Parkinson’s side in added time.
Clarke says: “When the manager told me I was going on, we were 3-2 up so my first thought was ‘don’t be the one who fucks this up’. Our backs were to the wall when I came on, which was no surprise when you look at who was playing for them. I actually got booked for hacking down Hazard.
“We went on a break and Yeatesy scored the fourth goal then with one of the last kicks of the game. The celebrations with the fans and the families afterwards were unbelievable.”
There have been some seismic shocks in the history of the FA Cup, but Clarke is adamant that Bradford’s win at Stamford Bridge is the greatest of them all.
The Bantams went on to claim another Premier League scalp by beating Sunderland in the next round. They were ultimately eliminated in the quarter-finals after losing a replay against Reading.
“No disrespect to their current side, but this wasn’t the same Chelsea team that’s there now,” he say. “This was Mourinho’s Chelsea who were hugely successful, winning the Premier League and the League Cup that season.
“They were the best team in England then and we were 2-0 down away from home as well, so for us to go down there and win was incredible. Nobody gave us a chance and you couldn’t blame them. I would say it’s the biggest FA Cup shock ever.”
When asked why Fabregas didn’t take Clarke’s shirt in exchange, the 32-year-old Corkman says: “You can actually see in the picture that my jersey is on my shoulder, so I’d say I did offer it to him or had every intention of offering it. One way or another he didn’t fancy it, so I just kept it.
“He must’ve already had plenty of things for his dog to lie on.”
To enter the raffle for the shirts worn by Billy Clarke and Cesc Fabregas in Bradford City’s 4-2 win over Chelsea, click on this link.
